Huawei exec faces US fraud charges linked to Iran, court hears

Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Canada’s Pacific coast city of Vancouver on December 1 while changing planes during a trip from Hong Kong to Mexico — ratcheting tensions between the United States and China just as the countries’ leaders agreed a truce in their trade war. A Canadian government lawyer asked the court to deny her bail, saying she has been accused of “conspiracy to defraud multiple financial institutions” and if convicted faces more than 30 years in prison. She is specifically accused of lying to US banks about the use of a covert subsidiary to sell to Iran in breach of sanctions. The lawyer said that Meng had personally denied to American bankers any direct connections between Huawei and the subsidiary, SkyCom, when in fact “SkyCom is Huawei.” SkyCom’s alleged sanctions breaches occurred from 2009 to 2014. He suggested that Meng has also shown a pattern of avoiding the United States over the past year since becoming aware of the investigation into the matter, argued that she has no ties to Canada and has access to vast wealth and political connections — and thus poses a flight risk. Meng’s detention in Canada came on the day of a summit at which US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping agreed to a truce in the escalating trade dispute opposing the two economic powerhouses. China says Meng — the daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, a former engineer in China’s People’s Liberation Army — has violated no laws… [Read full story]